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Fourth wall
The fourth wall is a theatre term referring to the audience. This originates from the idea that there are three walls on a stage, one on the back, one to the left, and one to the right, as well as an imaginary fourth wall in front that contains the players within their play. To break the fourth wall means to show awareness of the audience or other things outside of it. Season 2 In Death Is a Bitch After Peter is told by Death to kill the kids from Dawson's Creek, he changes his mind and says to Death on the phone, "If they die, I'll have nothing to watch on Wednesdays", he moves his eyes slowly to the viewers saying nervously, "Other than the fine programs on FOX". In Fifteen Minutes of Shame In a reality show that the Griffin family was starring in, Meg breaks the fourth wall by telling the cameraman to turn off the camera (Chris even mentions that Meg has broken the fourth wall, although because they were on a Reality Show, its not really breaking the fourth wall). In The Story on Page One After Luke Perry reads Meg's story, we zoom out to Peter's face in front of the scene on television, "singing" the sneaky music while looking at us. Season 4 In Brian the Bachelor While watching Chris dance Herbert raises his eyebrows twice while facing the camera. In 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter Peter looks at the camera twice during his "I can't believe it's not butter" quote. In The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz Stewie, at one point, urges the viewer to look at some of the women of Desperate Housewives on ABC, Family Guy's competition in the same time slot, and even waits for five seconds until the viewer switches back. Season 5 In Whistle While Your Wife Works In the opening sequence, the fourth wall is broken when we see a camera next to the stairs, and Stewie advises that we cut to the show while Peter rubs his swelling foot. In Saving Private Brian After shooting Vern and Johnny dead, Stewie turns to the camera and says "OK, they're dead. Alright? We're not gonna be seeing them again." In Boys Do Cry During the credits, Peter directs his poor-parenting speech gradually from Lois to the camera "I agree, Lois. Like, for instance, if you're watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that... you're an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn't be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves." ending it and the episode with a simple "Yeah..." Season 6 In Back to the Woods After Ghost Johnny plays the piano in Hell, Ghost Vern faces the viewer and says, "You're probably wondering why he's in Hell. Johnny liked little boys." Season 7 In Love, Blactually Brian and Stewie debate whether Loretta can understand Stewie and a director is heard offscreen saying, "We're filming." In I Dream of Jesus After Jesus talks to George W. Bush, Peter looks at the audience and says, "Wouldn't it be great if life were like this?" In Not All Dogs Go To Heaven At the end of the first act, when Meg becomes a born-again Christian, Peter disappointingly tells the audience that this will be a Meg episode and that nobody would blame them if they changed the channel. In Stew-Roids After Connie is trampled at a party and knocked unconscious, Peter lays on top of her. Annoyed, he looks to the camera and says to the audience, "What are you looking at? It's a cartoon." Then Stewie flies around an outside his bedroom window and lands on the mailbox carefully looking at the camera and says, "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like," in reference to Rocky & Bullwinkle. In Three Kings Peter is talking to the audience when he told the stories. ''The Shawshank Redemption Peter breaks the fourth wall when he says, "Since your Black and I'm White, that's make more a-special for the audience." and looks towards the viewers. In Peter's Progress King Stewert III sees a promo for ''24, a show that use to air on Fox, and gets mad at it for interrupting their show. Later on after seeing Griffin Peterson's act for the talent show, King Stewert III comments that he didn't know that they can rip off a scene from a movie as their act. Season 8 In Spies Reminiscent of Us Stewie gets knocked senseless and is unable to set up a cutaway. He faces the audience and says "Hey, I wonder what Peter is up to?" to cut to scene to Peter and the guys. In Business Guy In the beginning of the episode, Peter seems to be briefly unaware that they have started filming, so for about four seconds, everyone is silent until he looks at the camera and then says, "Oh, uh, it sure was nice to invite us over to your yacht, Mr. Pewterschmidt." In Big Man on Hippocampus The Adult Swim bumpers shown during commercial breaks were parodied. After Brian says uh-oh, the bumpers clarify that the viewers are still watching FOX.The fake bumpers remark that you should be watching it on Adult Swim, rather than Fox, because Adult Swim airs less censored versions. Confusingly enough, this scene is played on reruns on Adult Swim as well. In Dial Meg for Murder Peter reads a copy of this week's TV Guide in order to know the story of the episode. In Extra Large Medium Stewie discusses a poem by Henry David Thoreau, pointing out the audience's perceived lack of knowledge when they believe most would attribute it to Thorton Melon, a character in the movie Back to School. In April in Quahog After Stewie plays with his action figures, Stewie faces the audience saying that parents who buy children "homoerotic" dolls that the gay son is on the parents. In Quagmire's Dad Stewie tries to tell Brian on a phone that there's an alien in a grass skirt juggling torches in the living room but he doesn't listen and hangs up. Soon as the alien is seen, Stewie faces the audience and says "Ahh? An alien in a grass skirt juggling torches. Yeah." In The Splendid Source Peter narrates the story to the audience throughout the episode and also reveals that FOX ruined Cleveland's 'surprise' appearance in their promos. In Something, Something, Something, Dark Side * Han Solo, played by Peter, says he's gonna kiss Leia played by Lois so hard that the "picture's gonna change into something else" and it does. * Before Darth Vader, played by Stewie Griffin, tells Luke Skywalker, played by Chris, that he is his father, he looks at the audience and tells them "Spoiler Alert!". *Near the end, while Chewbacca, played by Brian Griffin and Lando Calrissian, played by Mort Goldman are sitting in the Millenium Falcon, Brian asks Mort why he is wearing Han's clothes. He looks at the camera and states to the audience that in the real movie Lando wears Han's clothes, suggesting the audience sees it. In Partial Terms of Endearment Peter calls attention to Family Guy being a show when he threatens to blow up the Family Planning Center to stop Lois from having an abortion. Lois attempts to call his bluff and Peter responds with "You've seen Family Guy! You know I would!" Later in the episode, the family is discussing the pros and cons of abortion without reaching a consensus when Peter looks at the camera and says "We had the abortion." Season 9 In Excellence in Broadcasting After Brian said that he was moving in with Rush Limbaugh, after Stewie says "Ooh, this is a bad idea. But I guess that FOX has bad ideas, huh?", a promotional bumper for Sons of Tuscon shows up and Stewie says to the viewers pointing at the bumper, "Let's all just sit here for a moment and remember that this was a thing." In New Kidney in Town At Peter's checkup, Dr. Hartman admits he saw the "Three Weeks Later" caption. In Friends of Peter G A drunken Peter calls attention to the "Laugh and Cry" urban legend in the show's theme song. In The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair Peter, dressed as Meg, acknowledges to the audience that he is stealing Meg's cutaway gag. In the end, Stewie turns to the camera with yellow eyes in a parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. In Trading Places At the very end of the episode, Dr. Hartman asks the Griffins what they do "after the screen goes black". In Foreign Affairs After the music video, Peter looks at the camera and says "That happened, and we let it happen." In It's A Trap! When Darth Vader/Stewie sees Roger from American Dad, he mentions that the show has run out of their own characters for the episode. Later in the episode, after killing Palpatine/Carter, Vader/Stewie faces the camera and says "That's the power of please kids." At the end of the episode, the Griffin's are arguing about Seth MacFarlane and how the show is run. Season 10 In Seahorse Seashell Party Meg breaks the fourth wall by pointing out, that if Family Guy would be true, Peter would go to prison. Likewise, Stewie notes that everyone is on Twitter with his "Stewie Just Said That!". In Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q. This episode aired October 30, 2011. In it, Brenda sings to unconcious Quagmire. "Live to see tomorrow, October 31, 2011." In Stewie Goes for a Drive After Stewie says "At least I'm not getting stabbed by a random guy on the street" and it starts to rain, he stares directly at the camera and says, "See, it's the exact opposite". In Back to the Pilot Peter looks at the camera setting up a cutaway, the cutaway shows Peter facing the camera and says "Matthew McConaughey is terrible." In Thanksgiving When Peter's thought process trips up the show directors on a cutaway, they slip in a cutaway of The Cowardly Lion as Lindsay Lohan's gynecologist. Also, when someone dressed as Kevin comes through the door at the end of the episode Peter remarks by looking back saying we don't have time for that. In Cool Hand Peter Peter's ringtone is the theme to The Cleveland Show which Peter acknowledges needs the viewers. During a fantasy of Mardi Gras beads, Quagmire acknowledges that the audience is well aware that his beads are used for anal insertion. While discussing restaurants, the guys make up similar names to avoid actually naming the restaurants, something that Quagmire regards a stupid but necessary since they're on television, but when the guys make up a dumb name for french fries he draws the line claiming they can't copyright the common name. In the end, Peter acknowledges that they've done a wrap-up of what they've learned hundreds of times and just mumbles the cadence, which is picked up by Lois and the family. In Grumpy Old Man When Carter ponders how he'll get around without being able to drive, Peter appears in a chauffeur's uniform only to be told by Lois that they weren't doing that. Later when Carter is playing with the thermostat, Peter looks at the camera and notes that Carter is learning. In Meg and Quagmire When Peter and Lois are stuck in a traffic jam, Lois wonders why the traffic is not moving. Peter looks outside the window and realizes that the road ahead is not finished being colored by the animators yet. Category:Family Guy